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Cape Town - The SRC at Medunsa has cancelled classes for the rest of the week including Saturday when clinical rounds take place.

Some students have occupied the administration block and apparently held staff there hostage. They have since been allowed to leave the campus. All normal gates and access points to the campus have been locked except for one as instructed by the SRC.

It is not clear why the students are on strike but it appears that the situation developed after EFF leader Julius Malema gave a speech two nights ago.

A student has tweeted that: "students have occupied the space at entrance of executive management offices, demanding the profs come out & be escorted off campus".

Eyewitness News has tweeted: "Students set the building alight, broke the windows and damaged the building at Medunsa".

A member of staff who was marking papers was accosted and threatened by student leaders who said they would knife him if he intervened. Female members of staff were pushed around and had their hair pulled.

Staff were given two minutes to leave.

Some lectures have been presented but many students are too scared to attend. Others are saying its a welcome long weekend for them.

Students are tweeting that the workload after the strike is going to be enormous and that it will be difficult to catch up with the academic year.

Another student has lamented that "Future health professionals on strike, sad story...medunsa..".

"The campus is finally shut till the matters be resolved" another student tweeted.

Witnesses said that rubbish bins and even a palm tree were set alight.

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